Peter Toms, Portrait Painter

(d. 1776)

Portrait Painter

From A Dictionary of Irish Artists 1913

Son of William Henry Toms, engraver. He was a pupil of Hudson, and practised in London as a portrait painter. He is best known as a "drapery painter," being extensively employed by Sir Joshua Reynolds and Francis Cotes in their full-length portraits, and many of Reynolds' works attest his excellence in that department of art. He was patronized by Hugh, Duke of Northumberland, who, when appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1763 took Toms with him to Dublin. Under his auspices Toms hoped to obtain employment as a portrait painter in Ireland, but he met with little success and, in consequence, returned to London. Of such works as he may have done in Ireland nothing is known. He died by his own hand in 1776.

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